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Running in the 'Meda: Taking action on a fitness routine

Running in the 'Meda: Taking action on a fitness routine

Marty Beene

Friday, Aug 21, 2015

Photo by Marty Beene.

I heard someone this past week refer to the old saying (a prayer, originally, now often used by organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous) about accepting what you can't control and having courage to take action to control what you can. This is an important concept in physical fitness and comes up in many contexts.

One context this arises is when a person believes they can't start a fitness program because of, say, their work schedule. Certainly there are parts of one's work schedule that can't be changed - perhaps there is an important mandatory meeting at a set time each week or even each day. Maybe the job someone has required attendance at specific hours of each day. It can definitely be a challenge to fit in a fitness routine around one's work schedule, but it's almost never impossible.

One way to fit in a fitness routine into a tight schedule is to break it into pieces. Knowing that a good fitness program should include both strength and cardio components, one solution is to do these at different times and/or on different days. You could do a strength workout in the morning, then go for a walk, run, swim, or bike ride in the evening. Another idea would be to break up the strength component of a program - upper body in the morning, core in the evening, and so on.

Another context is physical limitations. Often, people have issues with a particular joint, like a knee or shoulder. It could be a chronic issue that will never go away, or it could be a temporary one. Again, the challenge - which is almost always manageable - is to work around those issues, not to give up on the whole program.

A third context is age. I pointed out in a previous blog post that it's possible to start a fitness program at any age and still experience benefits. Yet this is probably the most common "reason" people have for not working on the fitness component of their lives: "I'm too old to start working out." (By the way, I've heard this from people ranging in age from 35 to 80 - think about that!)

For this last one, I challenge you to join my strength class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7 a.m., even if you don't think of yourself as "old." Lower Washington Park in Alameda: As the announcer on the old Hawaii Five-O used to say at the end of the show, "Be there, Aloha!"

You CAN control your fitness, so what are you waiting for?

Marty Beene, a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer with a specialization in senior fitness, is owner of Be The Runner; he coaches and trains adults from beginners to veterans individually and in groups. He can be reached at marty@BeTheRunner.com.

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